Handling The Critics

I realize that I haven't posted in a while, which is mostly due to a busy schedule, illness, and discouragement. I am hoping to get back to my blogging schedule soon, but for now I want to talk about the third item in that list for a moment: discouragement.

It seems quite clear to me that almost anytime you desire to do anything for the Lord, you will either battle the flesh or Satan; sometimes both. The encouragement that prompted this post came after a long week of opposition. This blog post by Justin Edwards brought me to tears as he used my testimony in an attempt to reach those who think they know Christ, but in reality they are self deceived. This was a follow-up post that came after I discovered and commented on this really good blog post by Justin as it had been reposted over at the Stand-Up-For-Truth blog.

Over the past few weeks I have been discouraged due to many criticisms (not just one). They usually amounted to accusations of being unloving or condemning in some way or another, or perhaps a disagreement on a theological perspective. Nonetheless, the reason I am writing this post is to give all of you readers some encouragement on how to handle critics. All subsequent points will ultimately drawn from Scripture, but they are points taken from a sermon which you can listen to here if you are interested.

The Context

In the book of Nehemiah, we see several different ways that Satan tried to stop Nehemiah from doing the will of Yahweh as he went to Jerusalem (in Judah), to the city of his father's tomb, in order to rebuild it (Neh. 2:5).

Here is a little bit of historical background: Between 605 and 586 B.C. the Lord used the Babylonians to utterly destroy Jerusalem. There were three returns to Jerusalem thereafter. The book of Nehemiah chronicles the third return. The first two returns are in the book of Ezra. The temple had already been rebuilt by Joshua and Zerubbabel in the first return (Ezra 1-6). The second return was an attempt by Haman to wipe out the Jews (Ezra 7-10). The third return is seen here in the book of Nehemiah, which dates at 445 B.C. This was the prophecy that came from Daniel around 539 B.C. where Daniel was told by Gabriel that when the decree from the King to rebuild Jerusalem came, that in 483 years, the Messiah would enter into the city of Jerusalem (Dan. 9:25). This prophecy is one of the greatest in all of Scripture because it works out to the exact day from 445 B.C. to 32 A.D. (don't try and do the math, it is a little complicated since you have to translate to the Jewish calendar) when Jesus Christ, the Messiah, enters the city of Jerusalem. If that doesn't give you the chilly-willies, I don't know what will!

To continue, Nehemiah had been issued the decree to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the entire city (Neh. 2:6). However, Nehemiah was merely following the will of the Lord and he was bound to meet some opposition. Two men continually nagged Nehemiah on his way to Jerusalem, and even once he began rebuilding the city, they didn't cease to intimidate him. Satan used these men to try to convince Nehemiah to stop doing the Lord's will, and there are at least four ways Satan tried to stop Nehemiah (there are more than four, but this short list will do. For the full list, listen to the sermon mentioned above). We need to know these four ways because this is how Satan tries to keep us from doing the Lord's will. He doesn't have any new tricks up his sleeve. It's a never ending cycle. This is what we need to expect from him.

1) Ridicule

One of Satan's best strategies is using people to ridicule us. Look at verses 18-19 in chapter two with me:

...And they (Nehemiah and the men with him) said, "Let us rise up and build." So they strengthened their hands for the good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, "What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?" (Neh. 2:18-19).

This was merely the beginning of the mockery. These men jeered at them and despised them. Nehemiah responded with a short rebuke to these men in verse 19: "The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem." This was minimal intimidation which Nehemiah responded to easily, but it didn't end there. Satan will always use people to intimidate us in order to discourage and provoke us. His goal is to intimidate us so much that we will ultimately quit, especially if what we are doing is for the Lord.

The ridicule didn't end there, however. Sanballat and Tobiah continued to criticize and attempt to provoke Nehemiah to quit in chapter 4:2-4. Nehemiah's response was simply to ignore his critics and pray to the Lord. Check out Nehemiah's response in verse 4 and 5:

Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders (Neh. 4:4-5).

And so, they built the wall (Neh. 4:6).

Satan will use people quite often in order to intimidate by ridiculing and mocking us. We need to be on guard against this. And when a simple response doesn't end the ridicule, we need to pray to the Lord, ignore the criticisms, and move on. Not always an easy task, but this is quite necessary.

2) Violence

Another way that Satan will try and thwart the plans of God is through violence. Sandballat and Tobiah did stop at mocking Nehemiah, they actually became very angry with Nehemiah (Neh. 4:7) and conspired to attack him and his men (Neh. 4:8). When Satan was theatening Nehemiah with violence, he did the same thing he always did. Verse 9: "And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night."

These guys were literally going to attack them from all sides (Neh. 4:12), and what did they do? They prayed. Then they set up a guard as a protection. Although the text doesn't say this, it reminds me of how our flesh will attack us. We need to be on guard against the flesh and against Satan with an active mind, ready to put to death the deeds of the body (Rom. 8:13). Nehemiah prayed and then stationed men all around the wall to guard against these men who were going to attack them (Neh. 4:13).

When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work (Neh. 4:15).

3) Discouragement


A third way that Satan will try to hinder us is by discouragement, which is seen throughout the whole of chapter 5. The people were being charged usury taxes, which was illegal. They were becoming poor and starving. Because of this the people were becoming discouraged and it threatened to discourage Nehemiah. But Nehemiah realized the situation (Neh. 5:6-8), and he pleaded with the King's men to give back the money they had taken (Neh. 5:8-11). These men promised, but Nehemiah showed great wisdom in verse 13:

I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, "So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied." And all the assembly said "Amen" and praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised. 

When Satan tries to hinder us through discouragement, we need to recognize the situation, and with wisdom continue doing the Lord's will.

4) Compromise

The final way that Satan will try to hinder us, although more points could be added, is compromise. Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem conspired one final time to stop Nehemiah from building the wall (Neh. 6:1). They came up with a plan to have Nehemiah dialog with them. They wanted to compromise with him; they wanted to find a middle ground of agreement.

Then Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together at Chephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they were planning to harm me (Neh. 6:2 NASB)

They said they wanted to meet with Nehemiah and dialog, but in reality they wanted to harm him. Here is his response:

And I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?" And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner (Neh. 6:3-4).

Nehemiah refused (1) because he knew they were planning to harm him in some way, and (2) because the Lord had commissioned him to do His will and Nehemiah didn't want to leave the work in order to converse. Satan will always send people our way in order to get us to compromise. Maybe to only do half of the Lord's work, or maybe none at all. If the Lord has given us a job to do, we cannot compromise, we cannot stop and dialog even if people find what we are doing offensive. Now, don't take me out of context here. All that the Lord has commissioned us to do as Christians is in the Word of God. If the job we claim God has given us doesn't line up with Scripture, then it is not a task from the Lord.

Then I sent to [Sanballat], saying, "No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind." For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, "Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done." But now, O God, strengthen my hands (Neh. 6:8-9).

What we need to see as we conclude is that Nehemiah never gave in to the ridicule; he never allowed the violence to be done; he never became discouraged; and he never compromised. Every time opposition came, Nehemiah prayed to God to give him the strength to complete the task. No matter how hard Satan tried to thwart the plan of God, God's plans could not be thwarted.

We need to be like Nehemiah when the post-modernists want us to dialog, and compromise. When they ridicule us and claim we are being unloving when we are dogmatic about the Truth of the Word of God, we need not become discouraged, but we need to pray to God for strength and continue preaching the Truth of the Word of God, even if it means correcting error. And we must ignore the critics that Satan will inevitably use against us to thwart the plans of God.

Two practical ways to handle critics that we learn from Nehemiah are: When opposition comes (1) ignore it, and (2) pray. The best option is to see the attacks of Satan and ignore them, and then pray for strength to persevere through the opposition. We need to be like Nehemiah and his men as they sat on the wall with their trowel in one hand as they built the wall, and their sword in the other hand as they defended the wall.

"Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other (Neh. 4:17)."